Quote from: Instamatic on June 25, 2014, 07:37:49 PM

Quote from: smoothie on June 24, 2014, 10:01:50 AM

It is an arms race and will be very difficult to ROI.

I would buy bit coin outright.

I used the arms race remark in a conversation with a friend the other day. Buying outright means working at market value hoping for an increase in price. Mining direct means losing money at market value hoping for either a ROI or price increase. I somewhat see them as one & the same except they both have additional benefits. Buying outright also stimulates price exchange rates and liquidity of the coin, however, mining secures the network and introduces new coins to the overall amount distributed (not to mention distributes network hashrate). They're both good options, but mining can't be completely eliminated from the equation either.

I used to post the 5 main reasons to mine. It has really dwindled down to 3 now since most veteran miners agree unless you get an insane deal no miner will + ROI in BTC terms. The only reasons to mine are:
1) you just have too much fun doing it. Well than hats off to you and enjoy your shiny new toys

2) you want to support the network and help keep it distributed. Make sure you don't mine on a near 51% then
3) you want to solo mine to get untainted coins which you use to make physical coins or just want untainted coins

So mining has its purpose, but it's just an economically losing venture at present. Having kids means losing money too since you could earn so much more and not have to "waste" money on them but I still chose to have mine